Cultural Dimensions of Globalization: History, Memory, and Silencing

Cultural Dimensions of Globalization: History, Memory, and Silencing

According to John Tomlinson, globalization started during the time of the Roman law, religion, and politics. At that time, the Roman culture was in most of the place and therefore referred to as global at that time(Tomlinson 96). The culture had connected people through a unified form of leadership, and religion. Tomlinson shows how culture became global at that time through sailing of the Americans to integrate with the Europeans. The Americans culture has adopted the signs and symbols of Europeans making the culture to be global. However, globalization through culture has slowed down because of the shrinkage of people towards their shared beliefs.

Giles Gunn dates back the idea of globalization from the time of human formation. According to Gunn, people must identify themselves about others(Gunn 90). However, human beings have a history of defining themselves on how different they are from others. The concept of trying to show how a person is different from the other has silenced the idea of people becoming one. Unlike Tomlinson who points out that globalization is taking place at a slow pace, Gunn argues that it has stopped because people no longer see anything they can copy from the others(Gunn 90).

Trouillot argues that culture globalization dates back in the 1970s when the technology and economy transformed(Trouillot 5). The two led to the flow of goods and ideas across country borders which were not there before. Unlike Gunn and Tomlinson, Trouillot sees cultural globalization to be ongoing. State boundaries are volatile making the world look like a single unit of culture. Some people are picking the best elements of a culture to incorporate them in their values while others are blending their cultures.

 

Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. “The perspective of the world: Globalization then and now.” Beyond dichotomies: Histories, identities, cultures, and the challenge of globalization (2002): 3-20.

Tomlinson, John. Globalization and culture. University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Gunn, Giles. “Human Solidarity and the Problem of Otherness.” Religion and Cultural Studies (2003): 80-94.

Do you need high quality Custom Essay Writing Services?

Custom Essay writing Service